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King Charles rebuts Earl Spencer over claims
September 17, 2026
Buckingham Palace issued a statement Wednesday answering Earl Spencer's memoir about his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, which is published next week.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed on Aug. 31, 1997, in a Paris car crash; her brother, Earl Spencer, has written a memoir about her life and death, and King Charles is her ex-husband and the father of Princes William and Harry.
Key facts
- Per ABC News, Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997, when the car carrying her crashed in Paris.
- nbcnews.com reports that an excerpt released Wednesday describes a furious argument with Charles, then a prince, about whether William and Harry, aged 15 and 12 at the time, ought to follow their mother's coffin during the funeral procession.
- nbcnews.com notes that in 2021 Queen Elizabeth II put out a short, pointed statement of her own after Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, made allegations of racism.
- BBC reports that Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the Earl Spencer book due out next week, looks likely to revisit a painful stretch of recent royal history, written as Diana's own Spencer relatives saw it.
NBC News reports a palace statement issued Wednesday in which the King, who keeps to a practice of saying nothing about books, observes that a brother's grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory long after a death, in ways other people miss. BBC and ABC News carry the same statement. All three place it against Earl Spencer's memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which arrives next week and tells the Spencer family's version of his sister's life and death. CTV News carries the event as well.
The contents drawing the palace out are also corroborated. NBC News reports an excerpt released Wednesday describing an angry argument with Charles, then the Prince of Wales, about whether the two boys, aged 15 and 12, ought to follow their mother's coffin through the funeral procession; ABC News carries the same account. ABC News and NBC News agree on the death itself, dating it to Aug. 31, 1997, after a car crash in Paris. NBC News and BBC both reach back to 2021, when Queen Elizabeth II answered the racism allegations made by Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, with a short and pointed statement of her own.
The statement, the memoir and the 1997 death are corroborated across the coverage. How sharp the exchange with Earl Spencer runs, and whether it amounts to an open quarrel, is put one way in one account and another way in a competing one.
Still developing
The war of words with Earl Spencer over the new book is set out differently from one account to the next.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos — Buckingham Palace rebuts claim in book by Princess Diana's brother
- BBC — Palace in war of words with Earl Spencer over claims in Diana book
- CTV News — King Charles makes rare statement on claims from ex-wife Diana’s brother - CTV News
- nbcnews.com — King Charles issues fiery response to Princess Diana’s brother over claims in new book
Toggle read the full reports of all 4 outlets counted on this event.